Wheeled luggage cases are popular with many travelers because they may be pulled rather than carried, thereby making travel more convenient. Wheels are typically used on larger luggage cases which are often too bulky or too heavy for most travelers to carry easily. However, the convenience of wheeled luggage is a significant appeal to users of a variety of sizes and configurations of luggage cases.
Carry-on luggage is popular with travelers who are trying to reduce travel time by foregoing large luggage cases which must be checked for handling in preference for smaller luggage cases which will fit beneath the seat, in an overhead compartment, or hang in a small closet on an airplane or other transportation vehicle. Most carry-on luggage is of the soft sided variety, which consists of an inner rigid frame surrounded by an outer shell made of pliable materials such as leather or vinyl. U.S. Pat. No. 3,977,501, assigned to the assignee of the present application, discloses an example of a soft sided luggage case. Soft sides cases offer a number of advantages when used as carry-on luggage. They are lighter than hard sided cases of comparable size and their flexibility allows the bags to fit into small or irregularly shaped spaces where comparable hard sided bags could not fit. The lighter weight and flexibility is particularly important to travelers who must be able to fit their carry-on luggage in the small and elevated storage spaces provided by an airplane or other transportation vehicle.
Perhaps the most widely used form of carry-on luggage is a garment bag. The flexibility of a garment bag allows a traveler to fit it into a small and crowded closet on a transportation vehicle or, when necessary, to fold the bag for storage in a small space such as an overhead compartment. However, garment bags are not conducive to carrying large, heavy or bulky items. Heavy or bulky items placed within the garment bag may wrinkle the garments being transported. If the bulky items are sufficiently large, there is not convenient place to store them within the garment bag.
Attempts have been made to allow bulky items to be packed effectively in a garment bag. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,513, assigned to the assignee of the present application, a garment bag incorporates corner compartments to pack rigid items such as shoes in the non-utilized space above the shoulders of garments supported within the bag. U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,368, also assigned to the assignee of the present application, describes a garment bag which may be folded over an integrated packing case for easy transport by a user. While such a combined case offers greater packing capacity for rigid or bulky items than the more typical garment bags, the capacity to carry larger and more bulky items is obviously not as great as typical suitcase style luggage of comparable size.
Most garment bags must be carried by a user, usually with a shoulder strap or from a handle while the bag is folded. Attempts have been made to incorporate dollies with garment bags to allow a user to roll rather than carry the garment bag. Although the dolly structure may be partially collapsible, such structure adds substantially to the weight and bulk of the garment bag and inevitably causes a loss of convenience. Additionally, the dolly structure normally requires the traveller to unfold the garment bag to the extended position, connect it to the extended dolly structure, and roll the garment bag along in an upright posture. The large extended configuration of the garment bag makes it difficult to maneuver and demands a great deal of room which is often not available in crowded or confined passenger terminals.
Despite the popularity of carry-on garment bags, many people desire a "flight bag" style of carry-on case, either in addition to or in place of a garment bag. The size and shape of the flight bag allows heavier or bulkier items to be more easily accommodated and the flexibility of the bag allows for storage within the confined spaces available on transportation vehicles. The flight bag combines many of the advantages of soft sided carry-on luggage with the familiar size and shape of more typical smaller suitcase type luggage cases.
To enhance the packing capacity of a typical flight bag type of soft sided carry-on case, the width dimension is slightly increased compared to a standard suitcase. The added width is more likely to cause the user carrying the bag in a typical manner to scuff or scrape the bag along the side of his or her body or leg, or to require more effort to hold the bag further outward from the body to avoid scuffing or scraping.
To avoid these problems associated with flight bags, and to achieve the convenience of wheeled luggage, separate portable caddies and integrated wheel and handle structures both have been used with flight bags. A portable wheeled luggage caddie creates the inconvenience of carrying the caddie in addition to the flight bag and having to securely attach the bag to the caddie each time the user desires to roll the bag. This inconvenience frequently outweighs the benefits associated with using the caddie.
In those flight bags in which wheels and pull handles have been integrated, the wheels were placed at a corner of the bag where a side wall and a bottom end wall of the bag meet, along the height dimension of the bag. A retractable pull handle is telescopically positioned within the interior of the bag. The pull handle and the guiding mechanism in which it moves extend across the side wall, and the pull handle emerges from the top end wall opposite the bottom end wall where the wheels are attached. The pull handle and guiding mechanism form a rigid structure which is necessary to support the weight of the luggage within the flight bag when it is wheeled. In the wheeled position the weight of the luggage in the flight bag must be supported on the side wall of the bag, and because the side wall is flexible, considerable sagging and distortion of the flight bag could result if the pull handle and guiding mechanism was not used to support this weight. The pull handle and guiding mechanism also has the effect of reducing the flexibility of the flight bag, because this rigid assembly extends across and thereby reduces the flexibility of the side wall.
It is with regard to this background information that the improvements available from the present invention have evolved.